I recently did a series looking back on my strength of schedule for each conference and in the Power 4 each schedule was a MAJOR force in the leagues overall finish. The Group of Five leagues last year did not have the same impact with more teams going from worst to first and vice versa from first to worst.
The fifth conference I am looking at is the MAC. This is the first Group of Six league I am analyzing and most Group of Six league suffered heavy attrition. In the offseason these teams not only lose their Seniors but most of the all-conference players that have not graduated generally leave for greener pastures. Most Group Six coaches tell me that they now get better freshmen recruits as the P4 schools do not sign as many freshmen anymore but they realize once a player turns into a star he will be bought by a team with more money.
As you see the MAC conference records add up to 416-416 so the math is correct but I did cheat a little to make it even out. Northern Illinois was 2-6 in the MAC last year and Sacramento St was 5-3 in its FCS league last year. Since Sac St is moving up and I deem Sac St as one of the bottom teams in the league, I just assigned them NIU’s (left for MW) 2-6 so the records would balance and I knew the math was correct.
I list 4 teams in RED. Western Michigan is the defending champ and has their QB and top RB back. Miami has been to 3 straight MAC title games. Ohio did lose a lot including their HC but they use the same system Frank Solich built and remain strong. Toledo has generally had the best recruiting classes in the MAC for the last 10 years and despite losing HC Candle and some key players I think they remain at the top. The Blue teams are most of the returning MAC teams including Kent St which jumped up to 4-4 in the MAC last year.
The GREEN teams (teams you want to face) are UMass, Ball St and Sac St.
The MAC plays an eight-game schedule, so each league team has four home games and four away games, so I do not have an extra column added as there are no teams that have the advantage of an extra home game or a fewer road game.
Based strictly on last year’s records Toledo draws the most manageable schedules with their foes 27-37 last year in MAC play. The toughest schedule based on that criterion goes to Akron and Central Michigan with their MAC foes going 35-29 in conference play last year. The MAC did a good job of balancing things out.
Akron draws the leagues toughest schedule. They are one of 6 teams that draws 3 red teams and they face just one green team. Western Michigan does not face any green teams but does face just 2 RED teams. The easiest schedule goes to Toledo which draws just two RED teams (avoid themselves and Miami) and yet draw all three GREEN teams.
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